Key Facts of HIV/AIDS

UNAIDS data estimates 33 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV / AIDS.

HIV/AIDS has killed over 2.1 million people in 2010 including 330,000 children.

76 per cent of HIV related deaths in 2010 occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to UNAIDS report, worldwide some 60 million people have been infected since the start of the pandemic, with some 25 million deaths, and 14 million orphaned children in Southern Africa alone.

Half of the patients affected with HIV/AIDS are in urgent need of treatment and majority of them belong to resource limited countries.

ARVs Anti-retroviral treatment reduces both the deaths and new infections from HIV/AIDS, but these drugs are expensive and the medications are not available in all countries.

A new trial has confirmed that if an HIV-positive person adheres to an effective anti-retroviral therapy regimen, the risk of transmitting the virus to their uninfected sexual partner can be reduced by 96%.

WHO recommends early start of anti-retroviral therapy as the key to HIV preventionstrategy.